Passbook Rate May Be Next To Decrease

The old reliable passbook savings-account rate of 5.5 percent is threatened and may fall victim soon to the general decline in interest rates.

Interest rates on certificates of deposit, which soared above 16 percent in 1981, now are hovering around 6 percent at most Florida banks and saving institutions.

Until 1982, savings and loans were permitted to pay 5.5 percent interest on passbook accounts, while banks were prohibited from paying more than 5.25 percent. Deregulation wiped out that differential four years ago, and since April, financial institutions have been allowed to set any rates they want on basic savings accounts.

The original idea of lifting controls on savings account interest rates, the last step in deregulation of the financial industry, was that banks and thrifts could compete with each other by offering higher rates to their customers.

Now, savers may discover what investors in CDs and money-market accounts have learned in recent years -- rates that go up may also come down.

Some banks in Ohio and Nebraska already have pushed their savings-account interest rates below 5 percent, and two large San Francisco banks have warned savings customers that their accounts are subject to variable rates.

No bank or savings institution serving Central Florida has lowered its passbook interest rate yet, but officials admit that they are keeping an eye on the situation.

''I think the lower rates have been discussed at every institution,'' said Ida Roberts, vice president and spokeswoman for Southeast Banking Corp.

Roberts said Miami-based Southeast is unlikely to lower its savings interest rate soon, even though it is now paying 6.0 percent on six-month CDs and 5.46 percent on money-market accounts.

''We don't think people understand it is now a variable rate,'' she said. ''There is a reluctance on our part to reduce the savings rate because these type of customers are not used to variable rates.''

George Koehn, president of Sun Bank N.A. in Orlando, said the volume of deposits in CDs has been dropping, while deposits in savings and money-market accounts have been increasing.

''We will be studying the issues every week. We may well see lower rates on non-transaction accounts in the near future if market interest rates continue to come down,'' Koehn said.

Frank Croson, assistant treasurer at American Pioneer Savings Bank in Orlando, said the thrift's officials ''haven't talked about it yet, but we may.''

Croson noted that heavy demand for commercial, consumer and mortgage loans has reduced the pressure to lower rates on deposits.

Royce Chitty, vice president of marketing for The First F.A., said the Orlando-based savings and loan association would lower interest rates on money-market accounts before doing so on savings accounts.

''We have made a conscious decision to keep passbook rates as a stable source of money,'' Chitty said. ''We're going to hang in there as long as we can.''